The present invention relates to a novel system for controlling the mixture of concentrate with a dilution substance in a beverage preparation system. The invention also includes the method and apparatus of the system which achieves the control of the mixing of concentrate in a beverage preparation system.
By way of review, there are numerous beverage preparation systems which use a concentrate substance to prepare a beverage. Typically, the concentrate substance is diluted with another substance to prepare the desired resultant beverage. More specifically, there are coffee and juice concentrate systems which use a prepared coffee or juice concentrate. We will refer to coffee for the present discussion with the understanding that other beverages, such as juice, are included in the discussion. The coffee concentrate might be provided in a liquid form either at room temperature or, for example, in a frozen state. The packaged concentrate in this form might be referred to as a xe2x80x9cbag-in-boxxe2x80x9d packaged concentrate, and the system dispensing such concentrate might be referred to as a xe2x80x9cbag-in-boxxe2x80x9d system. In such a system, a concentrate retained in a container is connected to a system which dilutes the concentrate with a predetermined quantity of water. Typically, when making coffee, these systems use heated water so as to produce a heated coffee beverage. Such systems meter out a predetermined quantity of the concentrate to be mixed with the predetermined quantity of dilution water.
Such prior art systems also extend to powdered or solid beverage concentrate systems. In this regard, powdered beverage substances such as coffee, juices or other beverages can be diluted either to produce a single cup serving, larger volumes, or to refill a common supply tank. In these systems, the powdered beverage substance is mixed with the dilution water and dispensed into the corresponding container. In such systems, a predetermined volume, weight or quantity of powder is dispensed and mixes the material with a predetermined quantity of water. The dilution system of the prior art can extend to systems which utilize a freshly brewed concentrate such as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,757,752 to Robins et al. In the Robins"" device, a tea concentrate is brewed and retained at a desired temperature range. The tea concentrate is then diluted on demand. In the system of Robins, the concentrate is diluted based on volume settings.
It is expected that there are other beverage and substance dispensing and diluting systems which are similar to or identical to that as described hereinabove. It is also believed that many of these systems would greatly benefit from the present invention which provides improved accuracy, consistency, repeatably, and uniformity as provided by the present invention.
The present invention relates to the system, apparatus, and method for controllably mixing a concentrate with a dilution substance using closed-loop feedback in order to improve the resultant substance.
More specifically, the objective of the present invention is for use in combination with a concentrate based beverage dispensing system which monitors the conductivity of the diluted substance and provides feedback to adjust the dispensing of the concentrate.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a system for dispensing beverages which uses closed-loop feedback based on the conductivity of the diluted beverage to adjust the dispensing of concentrate.
Still a further object of the present invention is to provide a method of mixing a beverage concentrate with a dilution substance to produce a resultant beverage in which the conductance of the beverage is monitored for adjusting the dispensing of concentrate.
Briefly, and in accordance with the foregoing, the present invention discloses a system, apparatus and method for sensing the conductivity of a diluted substance to provide feedback information for adjusting dispensing of a concentrate used to produce the resultant or diluted substance. The present invention also includes a system for dispensing beverages using the conductivity sensor such that the system controllably adjusts the dispensing of concentrate to maintain the resultant beverage within a desired concentration range based on conductivity sensing. The present invention also includes the method for sensing the conductivity of the resultant beverage and adjusting the dispensing of concentrate in response to the conductivity of the resultant beverage. The invention includes a conductivity sensor coupled to a dispensing portion downstream of the introduction of concentrate into the dilution liquid. The conductivity of the resultant mixed beverage is measured and the dispensing of the coffee concentrate is adjusted to maintain the resultant beverage within a desired conductivity range.